2010-2011 Annual Report
Outreach
Member Relations
The council has a full-time staff position, called Outreach Coordinator, to maintain productive relations with its 19 member communities and organizations. The coordinator visits communities in the council region, attends member group functions, gives presentations, coordinates special events involving the council and its member groups, and generally encourages citizen involvement in the council's work.
Over the past year, the council participated in
outreach activities at local and national levels. Some of those included:
• Alaska Forum on the Environment in Anchorage
• Copper River Delta Science Symposium in Cordova
• Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium
• Cook Inlet Regional Citizens' Advisory Council meetings
• Tatitlek Heritage Festival
• Chenega Bay Memorial for victims of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake
• Copper River Nouveau, a fundraiser for the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova
The council staff accompanied a Seward board member to visit several Seward city administrators and the Alaska Vocational Technical Center's Alaska Maritime Training Center, and went with a Kenai Peninsula board member to meet with organizations on the Kenai Peninsula, including a tour of the Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response center.
The council information booth was set up at:
• Kodiak ComFish (the largest state fisheries trade show)
• The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce trade show
• The Alaska Municipal League conference
Youth educational expeditions visited Valdez and were given presentations by staff. These students were part of educational learning experiences partly funded by the council. Their expeditions included learning about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as well as science, invasive species and the Chugach Forest.
National events in which the council participated included:
• Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, Washington
• The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry's North American annual meeting in Portland, Oregon
• The Clean Gulf conference and exhibition in Tampa, Florida which focused on the Deepwater Horizon incident
• The International Oil Spill Conference in Portland, Oregon.
One group from Kazakhstan, one from Korea, one from Argentina, and three groups affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico came to Alaska to learn about citizens' oversight. Most of the groups visited two or three communities and talked to residents and others affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Information and Education Committee
The Information and Education Committee supports the council's mission by fostering public awareness, responsibility, and participation through information and education. The committee accepted three proposals to fund educational opportunities for students from the region affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. These proposals were funded under the council's Youth Involvement project, which assists educational groups in studying topics related to the council's mission. The successful proposers included Alaska Geographic, which brought students in for an International Youth Eco-Forum, a Valdez high school science class field trip to Peterson Bay in Kachemak Bay, and the Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment's Copper River Watershed project.
The Science of Oil Spills curriculum was provided by the Prince William Sound Science Center, and an educational kit was provided by the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve following a month long focus on
oil spills. This project was in response to a proposal to fund one month of a public "discovery lab" approved by the council.
Google Advertising Grant
This past year, the council was awarded a grant for free advertising by Google, the Internet search engine giant. Brief ads created by the council appear when Google users search for terms related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, tanker safety, citizen oversight, dispersants, or other topics related to council issues. Users who click on the ads are taken to the council website.
Publications
The council increases public awareness on a wide range of issues pertaining to crude oil transportation through printed and electronic publications.
The Observer is a free quarterly newsletter with nearly 5000 copies distributed throughout Prince William Sound, the northern Gulf of Alaska, lower Cook Inlet and the Kodiak archipelago, as well as by request to interested citizens around the world, including regulators and industry. In addition, it is posted on the council website at www.pwsrcac.org/newsroom.
This year, the council began distributing The Observer as an email newsletter. To sign up, visit:
bit.ly/TheObserverByEmail
The Observer covers council activities, developments in the oil transportation industry, and news about policy and operational issues related to marine oil transportation. Major oil spill drills are covered, and Alyeska is invited to submit a column for each issue. In the course of preparing articles for The Observer, the council frequently invites feedback from industry and regulatory personnel.
The council makes available a 14-minute video about its origins, mission and activities. This video, titled "A Noble Experiment: The Story of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council," is distributed free to member entities for use in informing their constituents about the council. The video can also be viewed on the council's YouTube Channel,
www.youtube.com/user/pwsrcac.
The council also makes available a "then and now" report and DVD on improvements to the Prince William Sound safety system since the Exxon Valdez spill. They were created in 2009 for the 20th anniversary of the spill.
Each year, the council summarizes its work in an annual report such as this one.
State Government Relations
The council monitors state actions, legislation and regulations that relate to terminal or tanker operations, or to oil spill prevention or response. To track developments in the state capital, the council retains a monitor under contract during the legislative session. This area of council activity is coordinated by a Legislative Affairs Committee made up of members of the council board.
In the past year, the council continued its support for the idea of a statewide council to coordinate efforts by various agencies and organizations to combat the problem of non-indigenous species establishing themselves in Alaska and jeopardizing native species and ecosystems. No legislation passed during the 2011 legislative session, but the council anticipates continuing its push for some form of coordinating body to address the invasive species threat.
Federal Government Relations
The council also monitors federal government actions and issues through its Legislative Affairs Committee and a contract representative in Washington, D.C.
The past year saw one of the most significant legislative events in council history, thanks the efforts of a great many council volunteers and supporters, as well as Alaska's congressional delegation. As discussed elsewhere in this report, Congress passed and President Obama signed in the fall of 2010 a measure that will preserve the system of dual tug escorts for loaded oil tankers in Prince William Sound.
In the coming year, the council anticipates monitoring work in Congress on legislation to address problems revealed by BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico during the spring and summer of 2010. The council's goals will be to look for lessons from the Gulf spill that might be relevant in Prince William Sound, and to review any provisions that would affect existing citizen advisory groups or establish comparable groups in the Gulf or in Alaska's Arctic.
Recertification
The Coast Guard certifies the council as the federally approved citizens' advisory group for Prince William Sound, pursuant to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The council has been the certified group since 1991.
Under the annual recertification process, the Coast Guard assesses whether the council fosters the general goals and purposes of the Act and is broadly representative of the communities and interests as envisioned in the Act.
As part of its recertification process, the Coast Guard considers comments from industry, interest groups, and citizens. The council fulfills the Act's requirement for an industry-funded citizens advisory group, but it was established before the law was enacted.
As discussed earlier in this report, 2010-2011 recertification process resulted in over 60 supportive comments, the highest in council history. No critical comments were submitted.
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